[Shadowrun][JDR-ENG].. - Index of - Free

would ever lose the twitch. She was an elf, which automatically put her inthe cuter than average pile, but she also had a broken quality about her. Thekind of broken he thought he could fix.“Hey chummer, how you been? You look like shit.” She asked withwhat sounded like concern. It was obvious she thought he’d been jumped.“Well, I keep saying I fell down the stairs, but no one buys it anymore.”If she wanted this to be a social call, Taylor would gladly play along. Hecontinued, “Don’t let the bruises fool you though, I’m doing fine.”“Good to hear. Listen, I’m not supposed to be calling you, but theboss is going to be throwing your car on the auction block tomorrow unlessyou pay it off. You said you had a big score coming through, and since youanswered, I thought that maybe you had earned the cred.”“He wouldn’t get half of what the repairs cost at auction. And luckily,I did finish the job. The payment’s transmitting now.” With a quickthought, he released the 8,000¥ to Lou’s Garage. Taylor decided to go outon a limb. “I was thinking, if you’re free tonight, maybe you could bringthe car over to my flat. You could even let me take you to dinner as thanksfor running interference with Lou.”Turbo Bunny weighed the request—and obvious intent—for a second,then smiled. Mischief sparkled in her eyes. “Sure, I’ll be by around eight.You take me to dinner for running interference, and then to the new club,Infinity, for dropping your car off.”She’d gone further than Taylor expected, and he tried to play it cool.“Perfect. I’ll see you tonight.”“One thing though, I hear Infinity has a strict dress code. Make sureto wear some pants.”Turbo burst out laughing and cut the call before Taylor could respond.His excitement was crushed by rising embarrassment as the bloodrushed to his face. After regaining his composure, Taylor finished shaving.Smelling the fresh soykaf in the kitchen, he trudged across the flat forbreakfast.Taylor had grown up drinking soykaf, so he was used to the way itcoated his throat and even the aftertaste. Real coffee wasn’t the same—it had the same amount of caffeine, but the taste wasn’t right. Sippingthe black liquid, he popped the fruit-flavored cubes into his mouth andchewed. How am I going to get into Infinity? The question nagged at him.The hacker had run his mouth one time too many to the cute girl whofixed his car.Time to call his friends, see if any of them could help him out beforepossibly frying his brain on IC. He shrugged into a clean shirt and jeansfirst. Best to not make the same mistake twice. Using his public commlink,since he’d be traveling under his public SIN tonight, Taylor called Bakatare.Bakatare was one of those mage types, always doing magic except whenyou counted on him for it. He’d scoffed at going and seeing this year’s KarlKombatmage release; still he was good at what he did. Today’s call wasn’tabout flinging mojo though; Taylor needed Bakatare’s connections to worka different type of magic.“Good afternoon,” the mage’s rich baritone was accented lightly withJapanese. “Ahh, Taylor. What can I do for you today?” The subtext of “thisisn’t a secure line” came through very clearly.Taylor gave his best toothy grin and began. “Well, actually, I washoping for a favor. I heard you’ve been hitting the club scene a lot recently,and I’m hoping you could get an old friend into Infinity tonight. Meand a guest, that is.” A sub-channel to the call transmitted a picture ofTurbo Bunny—it was a frozen screenshot from their call earlier. “I reallyneed this, man. She caught me with my … off-guard earlier, and I wantto impress her.”Bakatare manipulated something at the lower edge of the display.The device was out of the camera’s angle, probably intentionally. He concentratedfor a few seconds before looking back up. “I can get you onthe VIP list for tonight, under my name. Do you like Goblin Rock? There’sa rising star out of Denver on his North American tour playing tonightnamed Syaf. You’ll get in, but it’s a chic dress code, so you better looksharp. Also, make sure you drop the doorman a hundred or so. On myname means you have to play the part.”“I owe you man, I owe you big for this. You know I’m good for it.”Taylor pumped Bakatare for info about Infinity for a few more minutes,then hung up.tBy eight o’clock, Taylor had done enough laundry to have clothes forthe next few days and something to wear to the club. The rest of the messhad been shoved into his closet as he ran frantically around trying tomake his flat presentable for guests—drugs and guns put away, questionableelectronics locked under his bed in their fireproof case. The commlinkshoved into one of his dozen pockets gave a constant update to the nanotaton Taylor’s back. An eastern dragon coiled and undulated across hisskin beneath the sheer shirt.He met Turbo on the street in front of his building, and was firmlyrebuked when he tried to take the driver’s seat. The last time he’d beenbehind the wheel, Taylor had wrapped his car around a building. Hecouldn’t tell her that he’d been trying to drive and shoot at the same time.It was the first time he had tried something out of the trids—a mistake hewasn’t going to repeat any time soon.“So, where we going for dinner?” Turbo nudged Taylor, then reachedover to lift his chin so they were looking at each other and he stoppedstaring at her thighs. She had put on weight since getting off the chips—eating regularly helped—and though everyone, Taylor included, told hershe looked great, Turbo was still self-conscious. The ten kilos had givenher back some semblance of curves though—he knew the prepubescentlook wasn’t one she fancied.“Here.” He programmed the street address to the car’s GridGuidesystem. It wouldn’t fully drive itself there, but the system had an upgradedpilot processor to react to changing traffic patterns in real time. “It’s asmall place, but they know me, and it has the best noodles this side of the